Alabama

Work begins on new Jefferson Davis library

(Courtesy of the Library of Congress)This undated photo provided by the Library of Congress, shows Beauvoir, the home of Jefferson Davis, near Biloxi, Miss. The home was battered by Hurricane Katrina, but work began Sunday on construction of a new library and museum.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Bertram Hayes-Davis says the $10.5 million project to
rebuild the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum is another
opportunity to show his great, great grandfather's legacy shouldn't be limited
to a fight to preserve slavery.

"In the American people's minds, that specific association is the only factor
they know about Jefferson Davis. I'm working to educate the American public on
all of the great accomplishments of this American patriot," Hayes-Davis said in
an interview.

The 61-year-old president of the Davis Family Association was the keynote
speaker at a groundbreaking ceremony Sunday in Biloxi at Beauvoir, the
Mississippi Gulf Coast home where the Confederate president spent the remaining
years of his life.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 damaged Beauvoir, and destroyed the library and
museum also located the beachfront Biloxi property.

The ceremony took place on the 120th anniversary of Davis' death of pneumonia
while he was on a riverboat in New Orleans.

Hayes-Davis, who lives in Dallas, said the reconstruction of the presidential
library will be a historic moment for his family.

"I think the completion of the library will again bring Beauvoir back to its
recognition point. We have restored Beauvoir to its original condition," he
said. "The library itself is a focal point of documenting all of Davis'
life."

Davis was a West Point graduate and an Army soldier who fought in the Mexican
War. He later served as a U.S. senator from Mississippi and played a role in
what would become the Smithsonian Institute before he was named president of the
seceding states that would become the Confederacy.

Funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its state
counterpart will pay 90 percent of the nearly $10.5 million project because the
site is a national historic landmark, said Beauvoir Director Rick Forte.

Forte said other funding would come from money the museum had before the
storm and insurance. The reconstruction is scheduled to be completed in August
2011. The 51-acre Beauvoir site is owned by the Mississippi Division of the Sons
of Confederate Veterans.

Beauvoir was built in 1852. A hospital was built on the grounds in 1924 to
serve aging Confederate veterans and their wives, Forte said.

"The Beauvoir House was built in the right spot. It's been through about 30
hurricanes and it's still there," Forte said.

But tourism traffic at Beauvoir has been down. Forte and local officials cite
the recession and the continued recovery of the coast, where Katrina's surge
left billions of dollars in damage and initially scattered much of the region's
population.

Forte said Beauvoir needs a consistent crowd of about 200 a day to pay the
entrance fees that range from $5 to $9 to break even. He said daily visits now
average between 100 to 150. The house is open every day except Thanksgiving and
Christmas.

Biloxi city spokesman Vincent Creel said the project is significant because
the city will be among only a few in the country with a presidential
library.

Davis' library isn't officially recognized by the federal government.

"We think it enhances the cultural appeal of Biloxi," Creel said. "It will be
something that's not only a showplace, but a resource center for people who are
studying the Civil War."